The BIG 'Safety Net'

Until recently many of us viewed having a job as a safety net for our futures. Our parents lived in a society where the main objective was to live comfortably, provide for children and hopefully retire from employment with a reasonable bank balance to help through their old age. And if we look at ourselves now, that is exactly what we are doing (maybe on a larger scale). And more importantly, we are educating our children so that they can land a nice cushy job in the corporate market and in turn have a cushy bank balance to retire on and the cycle continues. 

True, a few of us do break that cycle or encourage our children to break that cycle but for more than 90% of us, this cycle repeats itself.

One of my biggest fears until recently was that I would die an old sick woman with nobody to take care of me and all my focus was on working hard to generate enough bank balance so I could have a support system around me during my old age. After all, you might have a large number of family and friends but when you are sick and old, you have to fend for yourself – can’t really depend upon anybody else.

When I expressed this biggest fear of mine to one of my friends, she laughed. Her biggest fear was to suddenly go bankrupt and disrupt the current comfortable/luxurious lifestyle – I suppose all of us have our own biggest fears and we cling to the flimsy safety net of the corporate structure that gives us an assured income at the end of the month, of which we spend some and invest most for a rainy day. And thus, our mundane existence continues….

When I realized that my fear is not the same as everybody else’s fear, I was surprised. If my friend is not afraid of dying a sick old woman, why am I? And if I am not afraid of disrupting my lifestyle, why is she? We are both strong women – what makes it different for both of us? That set me thinking and I actually realized the whole foolishness of it – that threads of beliefs that we cling to and we plan for…

It just might throw my plan completely out of the window if I were to be hit by a bus tomorrow. I would have lived a miserable life worrying about my old age while I never reach my old age. The hilarity of the whole thing threw me off completely.

Most people I speak to, talk about safety nets – either safety net for themselves or safety net for their children. Don’t get me wrong here – we do need to plan for our older selves and for our children (both of whom need support). However, what is astonishing is our obsession with this safety net. So, what is this safety net? All fingers point to MONEY! Actually ENOUGH MONEY!

What happens if we actually live the thrill of swinging out without a safety net – the worst thing that could happen is that we fall and die? Well, in that case we donot feel a thing. I suppose the worst fear is that what if we fall and we don’t die? What if we are maimed for life and are not able to enjoy the things that we are used to. In a sense that means what if we lose all that we have right now? 

Well, have you ever stopped to consider how strong the corporate safety net is? What if there is a calamity that turns all that digital money you have accumulated in your bank to just useless toilet paper? What safety does the corporate structure, the finance structure provide? What if you became sick (god forbid!) and you never get to see your children grow up? It is not that these things have not happened earlier…..they have and they might happen again in different manifestations.

If you notice closely, the only safety net is YOU – the person that you are, and the belief in yourself. And that is the safety net you can provide to your children as well – the belief in their own selves.

So, if you had no compulsion of maintaining a safety net today, what would you do?